Hey guys,
I'm back, and thought I would fill you in on how it went. Were it not for my vacation, I would have moved to Phase 1.5 on Monday. But since I went away starting Saturday, and knew I would cheat a bit, here's how I handled myself. I decided that my top priority would be avoiding carbs - bad carbs and really most good carbs since they just weren't really available to me where we were eating. So instead of really monitoring my fat intake I just avoided all white carbs. I ate a lot of salads at McDonalds and Roy Rogers etc. when we ate fast food. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and I ate the shrimp scampi small plate w/out the bread, stuffed mushrooms and edamama (and some fried zuccini, which was in fact breaded, and I feel like there was some breading in the mushrooms unfortunatelyl). For breakfast I ate non fat yogurt and tomato juice. Throughout the day I ate almonds and cheese sticks. I did drink wine at night and made sure I had a veggie with each meal, even if it was the lame iceburg lettuce in a McDonald's salad. Now I'm home, and I'm going back onto a strict Phase 1 until Friday - for 2 days. Then I weigh in and then I'll start Phase 1.5 on Friday.

I felt ok with my choices. Given the circumstances, I'm actually quite proud of myself. If I had tried to be both low fat and low carb, I would have blown it, I know. But I feel good about what I did and I am doing 2 days of strict Phase 1 until Friday when I start Phase 1.5 .

Sounds like you did great! I love Cheesecake Factory--they do a fantastic job of giving you nut'l info. BTW, you can get strawberries with Splenda for dessert, there...and even splurge a little and get whipped cream made with Splenda to go on top!

Congrats on sticking to your plans! Edamame, BTW, is a great snack on SBD!